William Fairham

“ When a plough plane is bought it is usual to procure eight plough bits or blades of various sizes to fit the plane. In Fig. 121 is given the sketch of a plough plane with the names of the various parts lettered thereon.
The board or boards which it is desired to groove are first planed straight and true, exactly as though it were desired to make a glued or butt joint. One of the boards is now placed edge way up in the vice and with the face side to the worker. ”

“ Care must be exercised whilst cutting away the core to ensure the chisel being held nearly perpendicular; if too much lead (or bevel) be given, a faulty and undercut dovetail will be the result. Undercut dovetails prevent a proper grip of the glue; they give a weak joint, and often cause the face of the drawer side to be splintered whilst driving up the joint. If it be necessary to ease one or two shavings from off the drawer side whilst fitting the completed drawer in the carcase, the joint will show a greater gap as each succeeding shaving is removed. ”

“ From a constructional point of view Fig. 101 is far and away the best joint that has yet been produced. Unfortunately, however, there is not at the present time any hand tool that will economically produce it, owing probably to the fact that the joint is the subject of a patent. The dovetail tongue tapers slightly throughout its entire length, gripping the joint on the principle of the wedge and squeezing the glue into the pores of the wood. ”

“ Setting out the Joint.—For constructing a dovetail joint at the corner of a frame, as Fig. 300, it is necessary at the outset to trim up the ends of the timber square and true. This may be accomplished by neatly sawing to the line and paring the end of the wood with [Pg 152] a sharp chisel, or by bringing the wood to a finish with a finely-set plane, such as an iron-faced smoothing plane. The ends of the wood must be perfectly square when tested from either the face side or from the marked edge. ”

“ The wood is placed upon the bench, and the joint marked out by using a marking knife or penknife blade and the try square. A knife blade is much better than a pencil, as the sharp edge severs the fibres of the wood and gives a finer line than the pencil. It is not always necessary to exactly square and trim the end of piece A; it may with advantage in many cases be left at least 1⁄4 in. longer than necessary and levelled off with the saw, plane and chisel after the joint is put together. (See Method of Cutting in Fig. 92, page 47.) ”

“ A correct method to adopt is seen at Fig. 6. Here we have supported the joint by rearing up against the wall [Pg 4] a couple of pieces of batten, one at each end of the board, thus supporting it throughout its entire width until the glue is thoroughly set. The two or more pieces of timber in a butt joint adhere by crystallisation of the glue and atmospheric pressure. A well-fitted joint made with good quality glue is so strong that, when boards of 3 feet and upwards are jointed together by this method, the timber in most cases will break with the grain sooner than part at the joint. ”

“ To plane off the corners a "cradle" (Fig. 191) is made and kept for the purpose. The advantage of this cradle is obvious, preventing as it does any tendency of the partly-formed dowel to slip or wobble. A jig, or cradle, is easily made by bevelling the edges of two separate pieces of wood and then glueing and screwing them together as at Fig. 191. A small block of wood is inserted to act as a stop whilst the planing operation is in progress. It is usual to bevel both edges of the [Pg 95] timber from which the cradle is formed, thus accommodating all sizes of dowels from 1⁄4 in. ”

“ Mitreing a Moulded Door Frame.—Fig. 333 illustrates the method of mitreing the moulded portion of a door frame where the joint is dowelled, not tenoned. A small wooden template is made out of beech or other hardwood, having its ends cut at 45 degrees. This template is placed on the rail, as shown, and held in position by placing both the rail and the template in the vice. The face of the template forms a guide for a wide chisel, and enables the worker to gradually pare away the moulding to the correct angle. ”

“ This type of flooring is nailed to the joists in the ordinary manner, no attempt being made to conceal the nails used.
Fig. 94 is a section of flooring which is generally made of hardwood, such as maple, oak, or jarrah. It is used in positions such as ballroom and skating rink floors, etc., the tongue and groove being worked in such a manner that the joint covers the nails as shown. Each nail is driven into its position at one edge of the board, the groove holding the next board and hiding the nail (Fig. 95) . ”

“ When jointing thin timber (say, 1⁄4-in., 3⁄8-in., 1⁄2-in. and 5⁄8-in. boards) the best method is to use a shooting board (Fig. 26) . It must be noted, however, that a shooting board and plane practically never give a true right angle, owing to wear and the grinding of the blade. Therefore, the boards should not all be laid with the "face mark" on the shooting board whilst the edges are shot, because any inequality would be multiplied by the number of pieces jointed. A better method is to alternate the boards, face side up, then face side down, whilst shooting the edges ”

“ Rising Butt Hinges.—Fig. 236 is the rising butt hinge, used on dining and drawing-room doors, so that when the door is opened the door rises sufficiently to clear the thickness of the carpet. This hinge has also an advantage over the ordinary butt hinge in that it is self-closing, i.e., the weight of the door plus the bevel on the hinge joint causes the door to close. Band and hook hinges and other ordinary varieties are too well known to require illustrating. ”

“ Interlocking Chair Joint.—A joint designed with a view to strengthening the construction of chairs at the point where they are weakest is shown in Fig. 189. The joint is an interlocking one so arranged that, once the chair is glued up, no motion of the side rail can be possible. The groove in the side rail tenon is cut in such a manner that, on the insertion of the back rail tenon, the joint actually draws up and, having done so, is locked in position. ”

“ Occasionally some difficulty is experienced when fitting the slip to a narrow drawer, but this can always be overcome by putting in the screws from the top of the bearer instead of from underneath.
Fig. 266.—Dust-proof Drawer, showing the Front grooved to engage a Slip which is screwed to the Bearer Rail.
Shutting joints which are required to be "light-tight," such as those used in photographic work, are generally formed by slightly grooving the frame and inserting a strip of black velvet. The friction of the high pile of the velvet prevents the filtration of light through the joint. ”

“ The butt hinge is let in as shown in the illustration, and the door when opened forms a close-fitting joint.
Fig. 250.—Rule Joint Hinge, with Leaf Open.
The Rule Joint Hinge is used to connect the top and the drop leaf of a table in cases where continuity of design is desired, so that the edge of the top and the leaf will show an ovolo moulding when the table is either open or closed. To the inexperienced worker it presents several difficulties and, if it is a first effort, it is [Pg 126] advisable to try out a sample joint on a couple of odd pieces of timber. ”

“ Fig. 144 shows the upright and rails of common garden or field fencing. The tenons are bevelled to fit and wedge each other in the mortise. The illustration gives both cross rails as shouldered, but in many cases shoulders are omitted when the rails are not thick enough to carry them.
Fig. 145 indicates faulty methods of working a tenon. At A the saw has been allowed to run too far when cutting the shoulder, thus greatly weakening the tenon. At B faulty sawing has again occurred, and to remedy this defect the worker has resorted to paring the shoulder with a chisel. ”

“ Butt joints may be cramped up, if desired, and it is customary to warm them as previously stated. In the absence of the usual iron cramp, the amateur may make an excellent wooden arrangement out of any odd pieces of timber that happen to be handy. Two blocks of hardwood are screwed on the base board at a suitable distance for the work in hand ”

“ Fig. 1 shows a sketch of a butt joint in its simplest form. In Fig. 2 is indicated the method of holding the joint whilst being glued; the upright portion is held rigid in the bench vice, thus leaving the left hand to hold the piece which is to be jointed, whilst the right hand operates the glue brush. The pieces of wood which form a butt joint may be glued together with or without the aid of cramps or artificial pressure. If the joint is to be made without cramping, the two surfaces of the timber are warmed so as not to chill the [Pg 2] glue. ”

“ The term mitreing, however, is not confined to the fitting of timber around a right angle; it may be justly applied to the fitting of a moulding around an angle irrespective of the number of its degrees.
One often hears such terms as "a half mitre," used to denote the fitting of a moulding around an octagonal column or pedestal, and probably it would be more correct to describe the joint as a mitre cut at 221⁄2 degrees. Mitreing consists of halving the angle and making each piece to fit the line of bisection. Should the angle be bounded by straight lines, as at Fig. ”

“ The new portion of the leg is afterwards sawn and wrought to the desired shape.
This is an example of work where it is next to impossible [Pg 102] to use a gauge, and as only one joint is required it is not worth the time taken to make a template.
Fig. 210.—Dowelling a Cabriole Leg.
The tools used in dowelling are: Brace, countersink, dowel-rounder, twist bit, try-square, marking-awl, and the usual bench tools. The first four are illustrated at Figs. 194, 195, 196 and 197 respectively.
The method of working is: Plane up, mark out, bore holes, countersink, glue dowels and complete joints. ”

“ This will give the correct angle for the dovetails, and it may then be transferred to the [Pg 135] joiners' bevel. Many workers who are constantly on dovetail work make a zinc template to the exact angle and keep it specially for the purpose (Fig. 272) .
Squaring.—Another important point to remember is that the drawer sides must be true and squared to an exact length and planed up to thickness; otherwise the finished drawer will be in winding and out of truth.
To true and square the ends of drawer sides, drawer backs and drawer front, a most useful little machine is the mitre trimmer ”

“ Fig. 62.—The Two Pieces of a Halved Joint.
The tools used for making joints of the above class are: planes, the gauge, tenon or other saw, chisels, try square, and in some cases a joiner's bevel to obtain and mark the necessary angles, pencil and marking knife.
Plane up the face side and face edge of the timber, gauge and plane to both thickness and width; mark shoulders with pencil or marking knife; gauge to the thickness of the required halving; saw waste portions away; pare up with chisel to a good fit ”

“ Screw-bound is a common fault often overlooked by the amateur. It is caused by using screws of which the [Pg 111] heads are too large for the countersunk holes in the hinge, and may be avoided by slightly sinking the holes in the brasswork with a countersink or rose-bit.
Fig. 223.—Gauging.
Alignment.—Another fault that is fairly common is having the axes of the hinges out of alignment. Especially is this the case when three hinges are used to hang a wardrobe or other large door. ”

“ The Use of Saw-edge Corrugated Steel Fasteners.
To use the fastener no special tools are required; it is simply driven in with a hammer exactly as though it were a nail; once in position, however, to get it out is worse than drawing teeth. The corrugations add to the strength of the device, the wood fibres closing around them, age and rust but emphasising their grip.
Wall Plugs.—At Fig. 364 four types of wall plugs are shown: a, the ordinary rectangular tapered wall plug to drive between the joints of the brickwork ”

“ One wing of the hinge is let into the door, and the other wing is let into the carcase or door jamb, thus distributing a proportion of the weight to the carcase end instead of allowing the whole of the weight to be carried by the screws as would be the case in a, Fig. 237. The method of sinking each portion of the hinge into the door and carcase respectively is costly; hence it is not the general practice in cheap work. ”